One trend that I enjoy is the DIY, retrograde make it yourself, and crafts that have become popular over the years as a way of dealing with the ever increasing pervasive consumerism and buy everything all the time. I suppose that it's a good thing that instead of going all Project Mayhem on American Society the dissidents have decided to yarn bomb and build their own furniture.

Which is why I found this article to be really enjoyable.

But while I was reading this I was struck by how this looking backwards seems to be more an urban movement. One of my parents'friends raises chickens (lovely, lovely beautiful chickens that move around like teeny tiny feathered dinosaurs),and, unlike everyone else, wasn't surprised that I was thinking of raising some of my own in Brooklyn. Her inspiration for getting chickens had been after reading books written by city-folk who were keeping them in their backyard and she had plenty of space to keep "her girls." But my rural chicken raiser is one of the few people I know who is rural who participates in the DIY movement whereas in the city it's weird if you don't have your crafty quirk. Okay, and maybe that's just Brooklyn and I still haven't figured out if it's a demographic thing (that Brooklyn attracts certain types of people) or that it's more a need (that being in this type of environment is overwhelming and people try to find "real" things that they can cling to) although it's probably a combination of the two.

The appropriation of Vampire Weekend

I have no idea if it's ironic or just inevitable that the notoriously ivy-league African influenced band Vampire Weekend would find their song "Holiday" to be the theme for commercials all around the Christmas season. Of course Tommy Hilfiger, the brand for prepsters who haven't yet figured out that the only critter on your lapel should be a crocodile or reasonably sized polo player, would use the song in one of his commercials.

And then there's the Honda Civic commercial. I hate that commercial because there is a glaring inappropriateness between the lyrics and getting someone to buy a Honda Civic. The first being the entire commercial is set in winter where as in the song holiday is both an noun and a verb. It's a song about spending the day on a beach in the summer, taking a holiday. The song places the singer (and the listener) as a member of whatever groups (east coast elites, wannabe-elites, british people) who don't go on vacation, they go on holiday.

But the Honda Civic ad basically ignores that the lyrics clearly refers to the summer and makes it a friendly ad for everyone who has ever needed a boring mini-van to truck their kids around for the holiday season.

Also, while I really, really like the album Contra, that song is my least favorite song so yes, I'm disgruntled to be forced to hear it while I'm watching tv. But at least the holidays are over! Here's hoping that the ad execs aren't going to repurpose the song for summer...